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Why should you consider switching to a Birdeye alternative?
When you choose a software to ease out operations, save time, and enhance the productivity of your business; what are the key things that you look for? Is it the functionalities, price, what other users say about it, ease of use, customer service or something else?
Well, for any software to stand out and deliver on its promises, all these factors play an important role. Being known as a reputation management software, Birdeye has been in the industry for a long time now. However, it still falls short of delivering value and satisfying its customers on multiple factors among the ones mentioned above.
A lot of Birdeye customers are now switching to Birdeye alternatives as these alternatives cater to their needs a lot better. Birdeye is expensive, doesn’t offer the best support, has limited capabilities, and garners mixed reviews. If you are also a Birdeye user, you must know that there are tons of Birdeye alternatives for you to consider that offer more value at much lower prices.
After speaking to hundreds of Birdeye customers, we found a few common areas where they expressed their concerns:
- The product was 50% more expensive than other alternatives
- Customer support isn’t very active and responsive
- There is a 12-month contract that the customers have to sign to use Birdeye
- The features are quite limited and hence fail to meet the customers’ needs for both texting and reputation management
- Group texting, missed calls to text, reminders, and follow-ups are the main features that customers want but aren’t offered by Birdeye
Let’s dive deeper into the top reasons why customers actively look for a Birdeye alternative.
Top reasons for switching to a Birdeye alternative
Here are the top 5 reasons why you should consider switching to a Birdeye alternative:
1- Birdeye doesn’t offer group texting
Birdeye offers two-way texting but misses out on a very important functionality that most businesses need to communicate internally as well as externally.
Group texting allows businesses to facilitate interaction among people. Birdeye doesn’t offer group texting. This means that for group interactions, businesses have to rely on some other platform.
Since having all communications under one umbrella is one key requirement for businesses today, many Birdeye customers end up looking for alternatives.
The customer support is average
If a business has signed up to avail services from a company, they need to be assured that their needs would be taken care of, irrespective of the date, time, and day.
Round-the-clock customer service is something that attracts businesses big time as they know that they would get the support they need.
While Birdeye offers this type of service, it doesn’t do a very good job of it. Here are some reviews that describe Birdeye’s customer service:
Source: G2
This is another major reason why businesses are looking for a Birdeye alternative.
There are contractual obligations
Being Bonded into contracts is certainly something that businesses do not enjoy. It makes customers feel suffocated, and even if they want to leave for whatever reason, they cannot because they have signed a contract. Birdeye does that, as highlighted on the review below.
Source: Capterra
Contractual obligations put companies in a negative light as the customers are not satisfied with the product, their pain points are not being addressed, and they can’t do anything about it as they’re bound by a contract. This is another reason why Birdeye users are desperately looking for a switch.
Limited features
Birdeye’s functionalities majorly revolve around reviews and reputation management. But considering the fact that automation is the solution for businesses to enhance productivity and streamline processes, texting capabilities are something that businesses look for when choosing a software. Birdeye doesn’t offer many capabilities related to texting like managing conversations, assigning conversations, group texting etc.
Pricing
Pricing is another factor that has made many Birdeye users switch to other alternatives. While the package will seem affordable to you, it is 50% more expensive than what most replacements charge.
Birdeye charges way more considering that the features are solely inclined towards reputation management. This is why people are looking for a Birdeye alternative that offers both texting and reputation management functionalities.
On top of that, the features offered in Birdeye’s packages are limited as compared to other alternatives. This is where Birdeye’s value for money becomes questionable.
Selecting a Birdeye alternative: 4 key factors to look at
#1: Features
An ideal software is one that is equipped with an abundance of features. Considering that businesses are largely adopting to texting as the primary means for communicating with their customers, and are also making efforts to enhance their online presence; it is important for them to pick a software that offers both. This is a feature-by-feature comparison that will give you insights into what each Birdeye alternative offers, which will further help you align it with your goals and make an informed choice.
Texting capabilities
Key highlights:
- Birdeye doesn’t offer group texting, missed call to text, voicemail transcription, reminders and any type of follow-ups.
- Emitrr offers all the core features that businesses need, at an affordable price.
- Podium offers very limited features, which might not fully meet the needs of your business.
- TrustPilot, BrightLocal, Clout, and ReviewTrackers do not offer any messaging capabilities, they only offer features pertaining to reviews and reputation management.
- Reputation offers very basic texting capabilities such as two-way text, webchat, location-based interactions, google business messages, and Facebook messenger.
- Swell offers most of the features but misses out on key functionalities such as missed calls to text and voicemail transcription.
- Broadly and SOCi offer only basic texting capabilities and might not be the right fit for businesses that want to rely on texting.
Overall, The value for money becomes very questionable with Birdeye given the amount of features the product offers, businesses can use advanced texting capabilities for much lesser money
Review and reputation management
Key highlights:
- Negative feedback management is an important feature that most Birdeye alternatives do not offer. Since the practice of leaving negative and fake reviews is a common practice, businesses need features that back them up to deal with such situations.
- All Birdeye alternatives offer campaign management and response management features.
- Emitrr and Swell are the only Birdeye alternatives that offer all the listed review and reputation management capabilities.
Other capabilities
Key highlights:
- Emitrr is the only Birdeye alternative that offers all extra capabilities.
- TrustPilot and BrightLocal are the Birdeye alternatives that offer just metrics.
- SOCi offers only surveys.
- Podium, ReviewTrackers, Reputation, Swell, Broadly, and Cloutly offer only surveys and metrics.
Overall, features such as online scheduling, forms, support, metrics and surveys are additional perks that help businesses function in a better manner. Hence you should carefully study this table and take all these factors into consideration while picking your ideal Birdeye alternative.
As you can see, Birdeye and its alternatives have a star rating of 4+ when it comes to features. What you need to analyze is which of these offers the most functionalities at a better price. You need to maximize your value for money, which is why a detailed analysis is necessary.
All in all, if your goal is to enhance your online reputation, then you need all the aforementioned capabilities. So pick a birdeye replacement that can offer you everything you need at a reasonable price.
#2: Support
Customer support is an important component that makes people trust your business. If you have a laidback support system and are not offering a means for customers to easily reach out to you and have their queries resolved, then you are pushing them away. If a software doesn’t offer the best customer support, you will feel lost, your productivity will be affected, and you will not be able to achieve the efficiency that you need. So pick an alternative that offers you round-the-clock support.
Key highlights:
- Emitrr is the only Birdeye alternative that offers all forms of support.
- No other Birdeye alternative offers live support other than Emitrr.
- Cloutly is the only alternative that doesn’t offer phone support.
While the star ratings in the above table are somewhat similar for all Birdeye alternatives, customer service has been a major factor that customers often talk about when they review businesses. The next section will help you understand where customers have been facing problems, and you’ll be surprised to know that support is one key area where they feel stuck.
#3: Reviews
Reviews are an important component to understanding whether a business offers what it promises. It is a great way for customers to analyze whether a particular product or service will justify their needs. While positive reviews give an insight into what the business excels at, negative reviews highlight areas of improvement. Here are some latest reviews for Birdeye and it’s alternatives:
BIRDEYE
Key highlights:
- Contractual obligations
- Issues with onboarding and features
- Poor customer support
EMITRR
Key highlights:
- Smooth transition to another platform
- Great customer support
- Good texting capabilities, ease of use
PODIUM
Key highlights:
- Poor customer support
- Ease of use
- Expensive product
People have evn switched to many Podium alternatives due to these issues.
TRUSTPILOT
Key highlights:
- Contractual obligations
- Lack of transparency
- Poor customer support
BRIGHTLOCAL
Key highlights:
- Poor customer support
- Lack of transparency
REVIEWTRACKERS
Key highlights:
- Ease of use
- Issues with selective features
- Basic product
- Sub-par customer support
REPUTATION
Key highlights:
- Poor customer support
- Difficulty using the product
SWELL
Key highlights:
- Difficulty using the product
- Issues with integrations
BROADLY
Key highlights:
- Contractual obligations
- Poor customer support, no transparency
- Difficulty using the product
SOCi
Key highlights:
- Difficulty using the product
- Ease of storing images
CLOUTLY
Cloutly has only 8 reviews across all major review platforms. All the other Birdeye alternatives have 100+ reviews.
#4: Pricing
Price is another major factor that you need to consider to be able to make a final decision on picking a Birdeye alternative. You need to see which Birdeye alternative offers the maximum features at a reasonable price. Here is a comparison:
Key highlights:
- Birdeye’s standard package is more expensive that Emitrr’s standard package.
- Cloutly’s pricing is based on the number of review campaigns you want to carry out.
- BrightLocal’s package is quite inexpensive because the software doesn’t offer any texting capabilities.
- Review Trackers is also inexpensive as it only offers review and reputation functionalities.
- Podium is quite expensive as its standard package offers very few capabilities. If customers want more features, they will have to sign up for a higher package.
- Emitrr offers all features within a very affordable price range.
Overall comparison table
After analyzing all the above factors, it is clear that Emitrr is the ideal Birdeye alternative, irrespective of the size and nature of your business. Emitrr offers all texting, reputation management, and other advanced capabilities; is reasonably priced, offers excellent customer service, and has great reviews. No other Birdeye alternative offers everything, and even if it does, it is quite pricey.
Why is Emitrr the best Birdeye alternative?
Emitrr is a complete customer communication and engagement software that helps businesses achieve operational efficiency.
With a diverse range of features to make use of and excellent customer service; the software has been given the tag of an ‘Emerging favourite’ by software review platforms such as Capterra, G2, and Software Advice.
When compared with other software offering similar capabilities, Emitrr differs in many aspects, proving to be an ideal solution for any business that needs to automate its tasks related to texting and reputation management. Here are the top factors that make Emitrr the best Birdeye alternative:
No binding contracts
Emitrr offers a fairly easy and transparent billing system, charging you on a monthly basis. There are no contracts involved and Emitrr puts its best foot forward to ensure that the business is satisfied with the product and is willing to continue with it.
Also, there is no setup fee involved, the onboarding process is smooth and there are no hidden charges.
Wide range of features
Among all the listed Birdeye alternatives, Emitrr is the only one that offers a complete range of features, right from automated texting to reviews and reputation management.
While some alternatives fall short on the texting front, others don’t offer diversity with respect to reputation management features. Emitrr is quite easy to navigate and is rated 4.8/5.0 for its ease of use.
Excellent customer support
Customer support is something that Emitrr takes pride in. Being able to respond to queries in the shortest time possible and providing solutions promptly is what makes people pick Emitrr over other competitors.
If customers are able to use the product to its fullest potential and resolve errors quickly with the help of the support team, they will definitely see results. The team understands the goals of the customer and provides a customized solution.
Many customers have rated Emitrr’s customer service a perfect 5.0, and have recommended it to others as well.
Affordable product
Emitrr is the most reasonably priced in comparison to other Birdeye alternatives. There are no hidden costs, the pricing is quite flat, and it clearly mentions the features and benefits of each package.
There are two packages, one with all the features for customer interaction, basically everything around automated texting, and an upgraded package that includes all customer engagement capabilities, such as recall, reactivation, follow-ups, birthday wishes, reviews and reputation, reminders, and text message marketing.
Emitrr provides all these features at the starting price of its competitors. You can also have your package customized based on the features you need and just pay for what you use!
No fake promises
As we saw in the above reviews, many customers called many products to be simply ‘sales scams’ as they didn’t deliver what they promised.
Emitrr is quite transparent in this aspect. Right from giving the demo to the onboarding process; every single feature is clearly discussed, and the customers are trained to use it to the best possible advantage to see results.
Check out how Mary Tilak and Associates, a healthcare facility operating in two locations, registered a 90% drop in no-show rates, a sharp rise in its reviews, and a drop in average handling time in just two months by using Emitrr’s capabilities.
Features that make Emitrr the best Birdeye alternative:
Centralized dashboard
You don’t need multiple dashboards to manage multiple locations and contacts. You can easily manage everything under one umbrella, which will make it easier for you to manage things.
In-chat features
Emitrr comes with many exciting features that help streamline conversations. When you open a conversation, you can:
- Assign it to a team member
- Add a note to it
- Mark it as read/unread
- Set a disposition
- Mark it as open/closed
- Folderise the conversation
- Block the contact
- Print the conversation
Folders
With this feature, you can move conversations to specific folders, create new folders, and even delete folders. Folders help keep track of conversations and keep them organized.
Group texting and mass texting
Emitrr offers the feature of having group conversations, with both customers as well as team members. While sending a group text vs mass text, there are two options that you can pick from, either to send messages as a group or to send a text to multiple contacts without a group message.
Clicking on the first option will create an internal group wherein all members of the group will be able to read and respond to messages. If you click on the second option, the message will be sent in one go but will create separate message threads. This means that the recipients will be responding separately to the message. This is mass texting.
You can pick from a variety of text templates and multiple properties, add images and documents to your mass text messages and send the texts to as many people as you want.
Review and reputation management
Emitrr allows you to seamlessly run campaigns to enhance your online reputation. You can pick the channel for requesting reviews from your customers, and determine the cadence for sending our review requests and follow-ups. Also, a notification is sent whenever you get a new review, and you can even manage all reviews under one dashboard, you need not check different platforms for reviews. You can also respond to those reviews from that dashboard.
Metrics
You can track detailed reputation metrics by adding filters to your reports on hourly, daily, and monthly basis. You can check how many total review requests were sent, how many reviews were generated, and which channel the reviews came from.
Translation
This is another unique feature of Emitrr with which you can converse with your customers in a different language other than English. When you send a message to them in English, it will reach your customers in the language they speak. Similarly, when they respond in a different language, the message will reach you in English.
Surveys
Surveys help acquire the unbiased opinion of your customers and guide decision-making. With Emitrr, you can create online surveys. You can give your survey a title and a description, and add questions. From multiple choice to checkboxes, from long/short answers to linear scales, from multiple choice grids to checkbox grids; you can pick the type of survey question format that you wish to add.
All these advanced features, coupled with end-to-end customer support and affordability make Emitrr the best Birdeye alternative.
How to switch from Birdeye to Emitrr?
Switching from Birdeye to Emitrr is quite easy, as you need not do anything, the customer support team will handle everything.
- All your automation and contacts will be moved to Emitrr without any extra charges.
- Your number will be ported and text-enabled by the team.
- All your integrations will be moved to your current CRM.
- Your team will be given in-person and online training, to help you get started.
- If there are any issues or questions, the team will be there to help you get through.
Now that you are aware of everything that is available out there, and what you are currently missing out on. If you are a Birdeye user and are looking for more features, better pricing, and round-the-clock customer support, and want to break free from the contractual agreements; then it is time to switch to Emitrr.
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